


That's How You Know

by plinys



Category: Fantastic Four (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 11:42:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4605405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'I wish you were here,' he types, fingers hovering over the send key.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's How You Know

**Author's Note:**

  * For [selenedaydreams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/selenedaydreams/gifts).



> For a fic swap with the wonderful Selene, my prompt was "“That’s how you know you love someone, I guess, when you can’t experience anything without wishing the other person were there to see it, too.” - Kaui Hart Hemmings." I hope you like this bro.

The project’s nearly finished, their carefully build prototype being put together right before Reed’s eyes, the sketches he had filled notebooks with as a kid finally being given a sense of purpose. He’s supposed to feel accomplished, and a part of him does, when he’s standing in their lab looking out on the progress they’re making, he feels like this will be his moment. This is what it’s like to be weeks away changing the world.

But then he looks to his right with a foolish grin on his face, and it’s Sue or Victor standing next to him, not Ben. He’s skipped out on night’s festivities, insisting that he needs a night in bed, even though Reed couldn’t fall asleep even if he wanted to.

His dorm room feels lonelier than it ever has before, and it’s nearing midnight when he digs his phone out from under his pillow, squinting at the screen as he forgoes his glasses for a moment, to type a familiar set of words.

 _I wish you were here_ , he types, fingers hovering over the send key.

He’s sent something like that nearly too many times to count in the past few months he’s been at the Baxter Institute. Somehow it feels like the words have lost their meaning.

Reed doesn’t send the message, closing out of his texting app, he scrolls on the internet for something better – something more _real_.

His answer comes easily enough, twenty dollars later, he’s got a one way ticket out of New York City on the next train.

When Reed had told Ben that he was going to be a forty minute train ride away, the distance had hardly seemed very far at all. Now though, as he sits on the train anxiously waiting for the seconds to tick by those forty minutes start to seem like an eternity.  

He was going to get in at nearly one in the morning and then what - catch a cab over to Ben’s place and hope he’s still awake? All the possibly dismal outcomes come to Reed’s mind at once. What if Ben’s asleep and his phone is off? What if he can’t find a cab this late at night? What if he makes it there and Ben doesn’t even want to see him?

That last thought is so foolish that he almost wants to laugh at himself, but there’s a small hint of insecurity growing in the back of his mind and Reed digs out his phone to put the whole matter to rest.

His _I wish you were here_ text is still typed into the phone, so he quickly deletes it, instead writing, _What would you say if I told you I was on a train back home_?

It’s almost as though in the seconds following his text the train seems to go even slower just to spite him.

Finally his phone screen lights up with a message, and Reed grabs it quickly off of the seat: _I’d remind you that you have class in the morning_.

He can almost hear the concern in Ben’s voice. The same way he used to get when they were kids, sitting up in Reed’s garage all hours of the night, and Ben would remind him that they did have actual homework to do, or a test the next morning, and shuffle him off to the bedroom to at least attempt to sleep.

The never actually used to get to sleep, when they were younger they’d poke at each other and talk until the sun rose, and more recently, well they’d be doing other significantly less chaste thingsas they waited for the sun to rise.

Before Reed can reply, another text from Ben comes in, _I’d also be really happy to see you_.

And that was the answer he had needed this whole time, the confirmation to clear up his one second of insecurity.

Reed’s fingers fly across the keys as he types back: _My train gets in at 1:45_.

He can almost hear the excitement in Ben’s reply of, _I’ll be there to pick you up_.

Suddenly the ride doesn’t seem that long anymore, and those last minutes before he arrives are filled with a strange sense of hopefulness and relief. When the train finally comes to his stop, Reed stumbles up onto his feet. Thankful that he left in such a rush as not to think about grabbing a bag, and therefore having nothing stopping him from exiting the train as quickly as possible.

It’s all worth it, the long impulsive ride across the state, when the train doors open and he sees the one person he’d been longing for standing on the other side.

Ben looks like he’s just woken up, wearing a familiar worn out grey hoodie over what Reed’s pretty sure are his sleep clothes. His hands are in his pockets, clearly trying to fight the urge to yawn, as he searches around the platform for Reed. But then their eyes meet, and any hint of sleepiness in the other man’s features seems to vanish at once, as a wide welcoming grin takes over his face.

It takes a good deal of effort for Reed not to run towards him, though he might speed walk a bit.

“You know I’m all for surprises,” Ben says, before pulling Reed into a hug, a hug that Reed a sorely needed. And pressing a light kiss to his temple, one that’s barely there, yet it Reed desperately wishing the moment could go on forever. “But I have to ask, what’s up with this?”

“I missed you,” Reed explains, plain and simple. “I missed you, and calling didn’t seem like enough. So logically I booked the next train in.”

“Logically,” Ben repeats with word with a teasing smirk.

And Reed elbows him in the ribs in retort. Ben doesn’t even flinch from the contact, instead he just slings an arm over Reed’s shoulders just like old times.

“Yeah, well, I missed you too.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> as always hmu on tumblr @ plinys, lets be friends and talk trashy ben/reed hcs


End file.
